
IN FEAR AND TREMBLING, Søren Kierkegaard sets out a philosophical category that he calls "the interesting": "a category that especially today (just because we live... at a turning point in human affairs) has acquired great importance, for really it is the category of crisis." In this lies its paradox. An interesting life-like that of Socrates-is a life of inward pain and trouble. The crisis is psychological, for it impels the sufferer to reevaluate ideas other people take for granted. Its origins, however, lie in the world around us-if it did not change, there would be no need to change our ideas at all.
There's little doubt that climate change denotes a turning point in human affairs, albeit one that Kierkegaard could scarcely have envisaged. Generally speaking, our first reaction to a crisis is to talk about it. War is a useful analogy, for even the threat of war drowns out all other conversations. A whole forest of expert commentary has grown up around climate change-but as we move outside this thicket, it fades into indifference. Most people pass by it with the equivalent of a mental shrug. It unsettles them but fails to unsettle their ideas in that lies its paradox.
The basic mechanism of global warming was expounded by Svante Arrhenius in 1896. In 1957, Roger Revelle and Hans Suess showed that seawater was incapable of absorbing all the carbon dioxide generated by burning oil and coal-therefore "the increase of atmospheric CO₂ from this cause... may become significant in future decades if industrial fuel combustion continues to rise exponentially." Which it did, inevitably. The first measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide commenced from 1958. The conceptual and technical tools of the earth sciences were slower to develop: it is only with advanced computing techniques that climate modelling becomes possible.
Bu hikaye The Caravan dergisinin February 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye The Caravan dergisinin February 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap

FROM WHERE THE ORDERS CAME
ARMY OFFICERS TESTIFY THAT TWO GENERALS OVERSAW THE TORTURE AND MURDER OF CIVILIANS IN POONCH

Risking It All
What Mukesh Chandrakar’s murder reveals about reporting from Bastar

The Good Doctor Had His Problems
What we cannot ignore about Manmohan Singh

"THERE LIES MY COUNTRY"
Undoing nationalisms in Fahmida Riaz's exile writings

CAPITAL GAINS
The BJP's strategy to unseat the AAP in Delhi

Peeling the Layers
The philosophy behind The Savala Vada, India's The Onion

DRIVE TO SURVIVE
The discreet charm of Chandrababu Naidu

HOW TO SEE ART?
BN Goswamy's strategies of seeing

Bitter Crop
Ghana's cacao plantations in crisis

SURVEYORS OF DESTRUCTION
An atmosphere of fear persists in the wake of the Sambhal violence